Peter Braunstein had a full pantheon of female style icons (Edie Sedgwick, Jane Fonda, Kate Moss) and a passion for Manolos as intense as Carrie Bradshaw’s. Then, fired from his job at Fairchild, jilted by a girlfriend, he descended into a world of dark fantasies—into which he allegedly brought a former colleague in a bizarre assault. The making of a tabloid monster.

Hotelier turned developer André Balazs moved to Soho in 1984 and reimagined downtown in his own oh-so-tasteful image.

Newbie poet (and teen hero) Amber Tamblyn versifies on Les Moonves, Dick Cheney, and the celebrity-industrial complex.

Conan O’Brien talks constantly about how no one cares about his show because it’s on too late. But in four years, when he takes over for Jay Leno, he’ll no longer have that excuse. Does comedy’s crown prince need a whole new shtick?

A Diagnosis

Lourdes Gruart walked the runways in Milan and Paris for more than a decade. But as her career waned and she felt her jet-set social life slipping away, she became engulfed in paranoia, romantic obsession, and an enthusiasm for Santería. Then she disappeared.

Calling all models! Hold the attitude! Four clubland veterans race to open Gotham's next hot spot.

No, they're not all on the Net, and "Page Six" mentions didn't really factor in. (Sorry, Monica!) But a Who's Who of the city's Working Class turns up 35 who are anything but washed up -- yet.

Tim Burton, the dark-eyed sorcerer behind Batman and Beetlejuice, Edward Scissorhands and Ed Wood, now turns his odd mind to Washington Irving's legend of a horseman, and the head he misses.